novels

William Kennedy’s Albany Trilogy: An Interview with Paul Grondahl

May 20, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The work of novelist William Kennedy marks the union of encyclopedic knowledge, built over ninety-eight years spent soaking up the city of Albany, and a profound empathy for human experience in all its forms, from the underworld of gangsters, gamblers, and hustlers to the heights of power and politics.

In the recently published Library of America edition of The Albany Trilogy, three of Kennedy’s greatest works set in New York’s capital take readers through vastly different but interrelated lives. [Read more…] about William Kennedy’s Albany Trilogy: An Interview with Paul Grondahl

Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

May 6, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The institution of race-based slavery in what is now New York dates to 1627 when 22 enslaved Africans were brought to New Amsterdam (now New York City) by the Dutch West Indies Company. From that day forward some Americans opposed slavery and sought its abolition.

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Madison County, NY, has announced four abolitionists will be inducted this fall: Black Americans William Wells Brown and Samuel Ringgold Ward, and also William and John Jay II – descendants of American Patriot John Jay. [Read more…] about Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

Newsman Pens Second Mystery Set in the Adirondacks

May 4, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Christopher Mele, a 40-year news reporter and editor, has penned a second mystery novel set in the Adirondacks, which was inspired by true-life events at the former Lake Placid Club Resort decades ago.

The novel, The Truth Is in the Ashes (2026), is set in the fictional village of Goodwill and tells the story of newsman Alex Provetto, who is drawn into solving a series of suspicious fires at an abandoned, once-grand resort hotel. [Read more…] about Newsman Pens Second Mystery Set in the Adirondacks

Grace Brown, Her Murderer Chester Gillette & Old Herkimer Jailhouse

April 14, 2026 by ADK Taste Leave a Comment

In 1906, the murder of the pregnant Grace Brown by her boyfriend Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in northern Herkimer County became one of New York State’s most widely followed criminal cases.

The two met at Gillette’s uncle’s skirt factory in Cortland, NY, where they became involved and Brown became pregnant. Refusing to accept responsibility, he made arrangements for a trip to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Grace Brown, Her Murderer Chester Gillette & Old Herkimer Jailhouse

The Battle for Ulysses in Paris & New York

January 30, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

An outspoken critic of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, Jewish photojournalist Gisèle [Gisela] Freund fled her native Germany in 1933 with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Having settled in Paris, she obtained her PhD at the Sorbonne in 1936 and would become the most talented chronicler of the vibrant and multi-national bohemian community of artists and writers that made its home in Paris during the 1930s.

By 1939, Freund had photographed many of the greatest writers and artists of the twentieth century, amongst them Henri Matisse, Samuel Beckett, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Colette, André Malraux, Paul Valéry, Tennessee Williams, Peggy Guggenheim, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre. [Read more…] about The Battle for Ulysses in Paris & New York

A Long Island True Crime Story Becomes New Novel

December 5, 2025 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

Steven Damman disappeared from outside a supermarket in East Meadow on Long Island on Halloween, 1955. He was not yet three years old. Still unsolved, the case has intrigued many over the ensuing years – none more so than Newsday journalist John Valenti.

For Nothing is Hidden, Valenti’s new novel, is the culmination of his meticulous research into the case mixed with his years of observations covering Long Island. He presents a fictional version of the disappearance, substituting the Goodson family for the Dammans, while hewing close to the facts. [Read more…] about A Long Island True Crime Story Becomes New Novel

Culper Spy #355 Brought to Life

November 14, 2025 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

Where history fails to provide, authors of historical fiction can fill the gap. In her new novel To Outwit Them All, author Peggy Wirgau delves into the Revolutionary War history of the Culper Spy Ring.

The ring was a network of spies active during the war, organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge and General George Washington to provide information on British Army operations in the city of New York, the British headquarters. [Read more…] about Culper Spy #355 Brought to Life

A World of Pigeons: A Champlain Valley Pigeon Roost, ca. 1785

October 8, 2025 by John Warren 1 Comment

The wild passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering perhaps as many as 5 billion individuals. It migrated in enormous flocks on a constant search for food and shelter. They were hunted on a massive scale and sold as cheap commercial food until the last wild pigeon was shot in Ohio in 1900.

In Chainbearer, a novel set after the American Revolution in about 1785 in Upstate New York, James Fenimore Cooper gives this account of a passenger pigeon roost of millions of birds in the Champlain Valley: [Read more…] about A World of Pigeons: A Champlain Valley Pigeon Roost, ca. 1785

New Fiction Novel Set in the Finger Lakes

October 7, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In Ridge Fall (2025) by AG Jerome, Sophia Fenn, a former high-powered financial expert, is accused of embezzlement when she blows the whistle on her boss. Her frayed nerves and short temper take her on a visit to a friend in New York’s Finger Lakes Region.

Fearing for her safety, she screams at the delivery man. Her second sight of him leaves her breathless but in a different way. With her fragile emotions, she attempts to join the small community, continually bumping into that same man. Even though he’s charming and attractive, she’s determined not to get involved. [Read more…] about New Fiction Novel Set in the Finger Lakes

The Satyr in Bungalow D: A New Catskills Novel

September 16, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In a new novel the resorts in the Catskill Mountains are struggling in 1963, but the village of Fleischmanns has a secret that keeps the tourists coming back: A hidden colony of satyrs (a class of lustful, drunken woodland Greek gods).

Strikingly good-looking and differing in appearance from humans only because of their short horns and delicate hooves, it is easy for satyrs to pass. [Read more…] about The Satyr in Bungalow D: A New Catskills Novel

The James Bond Novel Set in the Adirondacks

June 8, 2025 by Joseph W. Zarzynski Leave a Comment

It was British novelist Ian Fleming’s tenth James Bond novel. The 1962 book, The Spy Who Loved Me, was set in the Adirondacks, around Lake George. The fictional publication’s antagonists were not Spectre terrorists. Rather, the villains were two Upstate New York mobsters.

Ian Fleming (1908–1964) was born in London, UK. He came from an affluent family. Fleming’s father, a Member of Parliament, died in World War I (1914–1918). Fleming attended both Eton College and Sandhurst military academy. [Read more…] about The James Bond Novel Set in the Adirondacks

Grounded in Long Island History: Jen Calonita’s Middle Grade Novel ‘Isle of Ever’

April 1, 2025 by Chris Kretz 1 Comment

Isle of Ever is Jen Calonita’s newest middle grade novel, a story grounded in the history of Long Island’s North Fork. In an episode of the Long Island History Project, Calonita discusses growing up on Long Island and spending many summers at her grandparents’ house in Mattituck, Suffolk County, NY.

It was there, in between trips to nearby Greenport, that she first heard tell of Captain Kidd’s lost treasure. She tried digging up the local beach, came up empty, but the idea buried itself in Jen’s mind. [Read more…] about Grounded in Long Island History: Jen Calonita’s Middle Grade Novel ‘Isle of Ever’

Sir William Johnson’s Bookshelf

August 23, 2012 by Wanda Burch 2 Comments

Sir William Johnson’s 1774 inventory of his New York western frontier estate, Johnson Hall, revealed a superb collection of books and other reading material.

Books were a bit more difficult to acquire in 18th century Johnstown than at present, so one could presume that selecting titles was considered, even more precisely than today, by recommended taste, by familiarity with an author, or perhaps from curiosity after having read a report of the book in the newspapers that arrived from New York City or from England via a New York City agent.
[Read more…] about Sir William Johnson’s Bookshelf

novels

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